Cheder Menachem held a Feb. 3 banquet in honor of its donors at Neman Hall in West Hollywood.
The evening for the all-boys Orthodox school, which serves students from pre-kindergarten-eighth grade, celebrated the approximately $1 million raised in 2014, according to Rabbi Mendel Greenbaum, Cheder Menachem principal and an attendee at the dinner.
The event drew approximately 100 attendees and also honored Chana Arnold, a Cheder Menachem preschool teacher.
Live painter Dan Dunn performed, painting before the audience portraits of the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, also known as the Rebbe; “The Fiddler” from “Fiddler on The Roof”; and more.
Rabbi Yossi Lipsker, president of the Cheder Menachem board of trustees who attended with his wife, Gila, and daughter, Batsheva, bid $1,800 for the painting of the Rebbe. He praised the school, saying, “It’s a great school that accepts all children regardless of what they can pay.”
Greenbaum, a recent Milken Family Foundation Jewish Educator Award recipient, told the Journal that the school’s mission is to train its students to “be beacons of light, not only to their homes but to their surroundings as well.”
Wise School, formerly Stephen S. Wise school, announced Tami Weiser as its next head of school on Feb 3. Weiser is the school’s current principal and will officially succeed current Head of School Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback on July 1, as he takes on the position of senior rabbi of Stephen Wise Temple.
Tami Weiser
Weiser, 51, says her current goals in her new leadership position are to continue the trajectory of building up the day school and to create an innovation lab. The school received a generous donation that will help bring the lab to a reality, and Weiser said she is looking forward to “developing a space that builds future thinkers.” She also plans to reach out to alumni of the school.
“I’m excited to be on this journey and to be taking this next step,” she said.
Weiser has been the principal at Wise School for the past five years, and at this time, no replacement will be hired for the position of principal. The tasks of principal will be filled by the current administrative team.
Her background includes time as an administrator for public schools in Los Angeles and as head of school at the former Heschel West Day School, now known as Ilan Ramon Day School, in Agoura Hills.
Wise School, which was founded in 1977, has an early childhood center with 157 children and an elementary school that goes up to sixth grade with 314 students.
— Leilani Peltz, Contributing Writer
The fifth annual Yom Limmud (“Day of Learning”) at Leo Baeck Temple on Feb. 7 attracted 300 people to the Reform congregation for 45 sessions on a diversity of topics.
Leo Baeck Rabbi Ken Chasen addresses Limmud attendees. Photo by Larry Sterling
Event co-chairs Ted Cohen and Terri Oppelt and a committee of 12 organized the gathering, which featured issues as wide-ranging as arts, nature, politics and Judaic studies, congregant and event publicist Lois Littman said in a phone interview.
Baeck Assistant Rabbi Lisa Berney presented “on the audaciousness of prayer, and how difficult it is to pray and the meaning of prayer and getting into the mood,” Littman said, describing a personal highlight of the day, which kicked off at 9:15 a.m. and wrapped with Havdalah.
The Rt. Rev. Alexei Smith of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and Amir Hussain, a Loyola Marymount University professor of theological studies whose specialty is Islam, shared a panel.
Current events were in the mix, as well, with Rabbi Stephanie Kolin, co-director of Union for Reform Judaism’s Just Congregations initiative and Baeck Rabbi Rachel Timoner discussing separate police killings during a panel titled, “What Do Michael Brown and Eric Garner Have To Do With Us?”
Leo Baeck Rabbi Ken Chasen and Cantor Linda Kates; Allison Lee of American Jewish World Service; and Lee Broekman, a communications professor at American Jewish University were among others who presented, according to an event program.
3G at LAMOTH (Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust) raised more than $1,300 to assist local, Holocaust survivors in need through Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles during a community gathering at the museum on Feb 5.
3G at LAMOTH executive board members (from left, top row) Galit Prince, Guy Lipa and Jon Steingold and (from left, bottom) Rachel Hamburg, Becca Katz, Jordanna Gessler, Caitlin Kress and Samira Miller. Photo by Gina Cholick
“My first and foremost goal is to help the remaining survivors who are living below the poverty line. While some effective action has already been taken, there is still a lot of work to do. It’s absolutely critical that we, as a community, do whatever we can to take care of these individuals since time is running out,” Jon Steingold, 3G at LAMOTH executive board member, said in a statement.
“The purpose of the event was to come together, basically a community-building for 3G at LAMOTH, for family and friends,” fellow board member Samira Miller, who is also the museum’s director of community support, told the Journal.
Other attendees included executive board members Galit Prince, Guy Lipa, Rachel Hamburg, Becca Katz, Jordanna Gessler and Caitlin Kress. They were joined by more than 80 of their family and friends,
Attendees enjoyed wine and sushi and toured the museum during the event, which was titled, “A Night of History and Humanity.”
3G at LAMOTH, founded by the grandchildren of survivors, describes itself on the LAMOTH website as “a museum-based community for young professionals who want to play a direct role in shaping the future of Holocaust remembrance and education by actively engaging the Museum community, survivors, and the larger Los Angeles public.”
Moving and Shaking highlights events, honors and simchas. Got a tip? Email ryant@jewishjournal.com.
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